Posts Tagged ‘Herb Kohl’

July 3, 2014 · 5:07 PM ET

Given what was done and how it happened, Larry Drew – freshly minted former head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks – would be within his rights to take a few parting shots at the team’s co-owners who abruptly fired him and the fellow who lobbied for Drew’s job while his warm rump still was in the seat.

It surely would feel good, after the wringer through which he was put in a span of 72 hours last weekend, to vent in the direction of Marc Lasry and Wes Edens, the co-owners, and Jason Kidd, the Bucks’ new coach thanks to his friendship with Lasry.

Of course, that might somehow gum up the delivery of the checks Drew will continue to receive — $5 million due to him for the final two years of his coaching contract. Here at Hang Time HQ, we know fired head coaches who wound up inviting the mailmen to their daughters’ weddings, based on the friendships they struck up loitering by the mailbox each month, awaiting the checks owed them. Nothing to gain in making those a day late or a dollar short.

The fact is, Drew handled the ham-handed firing-and-hiring with the same grace he showed in enduring the Bucks’ 15-67 plunge to the NBA’s basement last season. Milwaukee swapped its “Fear The Dear” bumper stickers from a few years back for a “We Don’t Tank But We Sure Do Stank” motto en route to another seat at the lottery.

Sure, he was the coach, but injuries, flaws in a roster with 11 new faces, underperformances by the likes of O.J. Mayo, Gary Neal and Ersan Ilyasova, and Larry Sanders’ misdeeds conspired to drag down Milwaukee’s results. Besides, a few more victories would have cost the Bucks the No. 2 spot and thus Jabari Parker, their ready-to-go cornerstone draftee.

Anyway, Drew issued a statement through the Bucks Thursday and kept it classy:

THANK YOU MILWAUKEE

“I would like to thank Senator Herb Kohl and [general manager] John Hammond for giving me the opportunity to coach the Milwaukee Bucks this past season. Although my tenure was brief, it will forever be memorable.

“Thank you to all of the great Bucks fans for your love and support, you truly are some of the best fans in the NBA.

“My swift termination did come as a surprise to me, but I accept new owners Wesley Edens’ and Marc Lasry’s decision that they’ve made. I wish the entire Bucks organization and the great city of Milwaukee nothing but the best in the future.”

No. 1:Pacers planning on some changes in Game 2 — Simply put, the Indiana Pacers were shellshocked after the Atlanta Hawks marched into Bankers Life Fieldhouse and beat the home team from start to finish. With that defeat on their minds, the Pacers are examining each and every thing they did in Game 1 and are open to making some pretty big changes on things from who guards the star of Game 1 (Atlanta’s Jeff Teague) to what kind of defense they’ll play as a team and more. Mark Montieth of Pacers.com has more:

Coach Frank Vogel was coy when pressed on the issue following Monday’s practice at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, not wishing to become the first coach in NBA history to reveal strategy to the opponent a day before a playoff game. But, winds of change were wafting through the building. Practice ran longer than was originally advertised to the media, and all doors were closed. Afterward, Lance Stephenson created a breeze when asked if strategic changes were forthcoming.

“Of course we’re going to make changes,” he said. “We’re not allowed to talk about the changes we made, (the Hawks) will figure it out when we play.”

Earlier, Vogel had only hinted at the possibility.

“I prefer not to make major changes,” he said.

Are you willing?

“Of course.”

Do you think you will?

“We’ll see.”

…

Any changes are most likely to come on defense. Offensively, Vogel simply wants his team to move the ball more quickly and more often, and for Roy Hibbert to establish better post position near the basket and for his teammates to toss the ball to him when he does. But given the way Hawks point guard Jeff Teague punctured the Pacers’ defense on Saturday, some sort of adjustment seems in order.

The players talked Monday about doing a better job of helping one another, filling gaps and all that, but would they go to the extreme of rolling out a zone defense for the first time this season? Vogel said during last season’s playoff series with Miami that he would implement it this season. He hasn’t, largely because the team’s trip to Taiwan and the Philippines for two preseason games sliced too large a chunk out of his practice time.

The bottom line is, something will be to be done to prevent Teague from running a layup line. He had nine of them on Saturday on his way to 28 points. A zone defense would be one way to do it.

“I wish we had used it more, because then I’d be more comfortable using it now,” Vogel said. “That is something we’re talking pretty lengthily about.”

…

At the very least, it’s likely that Paul George will defend Teague at some point. George isn’t as quick as Teague, but he is seven inches taller and the Pacers’ best perimeter defender.

George has said he wants to do it. But he wasn’t going to say he would do it.

“If the opportunity calls for it, I’ll enjoy the match-up,” he said, smiling.

“For all I know,” he added, “Hibbert’s guarding him.”

***

No. 2:Nowitzki backs Calderon as Mavs’ starting point guard — Most NBA followers know that Dallas Mavericks point guard Jose Calderon is one of the best playmakers in the league … and also one of its worst defenders at the point as well. In Game 1, though, Calderon struggled a bit, amassing seven points and two assists in 16 minutes. His primary understudy, Devin Harris, had a much better game, going for 19 points and five assists in 32 minutes. So, is there a point guard quandary in Big D. ESPNDallas.com’s Tim McMahon reports that to star Dirk Nowitzki, there’s no question who the starter is for Game 2:

Coach Rick Carlisle refused to discuss whether he’d consider starting Devin Harris instead of Jose Calderon in Game 2, using his stock line about revealing his lineup 16 minutes before tip.

However, Dirk Nowitzki readily declared about 53 hours before Wednesday’s tip in San Antonio that no change in the Mavericks’ starting lineup was forthcoming.

“We’re rolling the way we’re set up,” Nowitzki said. “Jose has been our starter the whole year. We’ve got to start the game off a little better. I think we were a little slow and we were down eight or 10 pretty quick there in the first quarter, so we’ve got to be a little better there, but Jose is our starter. He’s the guy that puts us in our plays and we’re rolling with it.”

…

The Mavs’ normal starting lineup has been badly overmatched against the Spurs, having been outscored by 40 points in 33 minutes in the Dallas-San Antonio meetings this season, including Game 1. The Mavs have had a 24-point advantage in the 79 minutes that Harris has played against the Spurs, but that’s also evidence of the success the Dallas bench has had against San Antonio’s second unit, a strength that Carlisle might not want to mess with.

“We’re going to approach it the way we approach it, doing it the way we feel is best,” Carlisle said. “If we get to the point where I feel major lineup changes are in order, we’ll do it, but I’m not going to talk about it two days before the game.”

***

No. 3:Report: New arena critical to Bucks deal — Last week, Milwaukee Bucks fans got some happy news about the future of their team as longtime owner Herb Kohl announced he was selling the team to the duo of Wesley Edens and Mark Lasry for a reported $550 million. While that ownership group is committed to keeping the team in Milwaukee, they could lose the ownership rights on their team if they cannot get a new arena built for the Bucks by 2017. Marc Stein and Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com have more: :

The NBA has the right to buy back the Milwaukee Bucks from incoming owners Wesley Edens and Mark Lasry if a deal to a bring a new arena to the city is not in place by November 2017, according to sources briefed on the situation.

Sources told ESPN.com that the sale agreement announced last week to transfer the Bucks from longtime owner Herb Kohl to Edens and Lasry for a purchase price of $550 million includes a provision that allows the league to buy back the team for $575 million if construction on a new building in Milwaukee is not underway by the deadline.

Although one source said Monday that the league would likely only take that step if it didn’t see “significant progress” toward a new arena in Milwaukee by then, this provision ensures that the NBA would control the fate of the franchise from that point as opposed to Edens and Lasry.

…

Edens and Lasry agreed last week to pay a league-record $550 million to Kohl for the Bucks and promised to contribute an additional $100 million toward a new arena. Kohl also pledged to gift $100 million toward construction of a new facility, but more financing will be needed to get the project going, with city officials in Milwaukee estimating that a new arena would cost in excess of $400 million.

The inclusion of this clause in the sale agreement, furthermore, is an unspoken admission that neither the league nor the new owners are convinced that construction on a modern building in Milwaukee will be underway in the space of three-plus years.

Two local task forces have been assembled to study the issue, but there has already been pushback to potential public financing by politicians and community groups. The Bucks’ lease with the antiquated Bradley Center runs through the 2016-17 season, which establishes the fall of 2017 as a natural deadline to find a solution.

***

No. 4: Thibodeau calls out Bulls’ defense — In Game 1 of the Bulls-Wizards series, Chicago allowed Washington to roll up 102 points as the Wizards’ big man combo of Marcin Gortat and Nene pounded away and picked apart the Bulls’ vaunted defense. That kind of performance left a bitter taste in coach Tom Thibodeau‘s mouth and he didn’t mince words during Monday’s practice about how displeased he was with Chicago’s defense, particularly the play of point guard D.J. Augustin. Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times has more on what the Bulls plan to do differently in Game 2:

‘To put it on one guy, that’s not how we do it here,’’ Thibodeau said.

But that didn’t prevent the Wizards from finding that perceived weak link in the chain and attacking it, especially in their fourth-quarter comeback. Unfortunately for guard D.J. Augustin, he was the guy the Wizards went after in crunch time.

“Not only D.J., our defense,’’ Thibodeau said when asked if he thought Augustin had to improve on the defensive end. ‘‘I could go from start to finish. There’s an endless list of things that we didn’t do correctly. We’re capable of doing much better. And we’re going to have to.

“They’re a good team. In the playoffs, you have to play for 48 minutes and be disciplined. You have to stick to it. Some plays, they made tough plays. Give them credit. Others, we made mistakes. And we have to correct those mistakes.’’

According to one source, though, Thibodeau was concerned about Augustin’s defensive shortcomings being exposed, especially in the playoffs, when opposing coaches smell blood and attack. Sure enough, the Wizards’ guards seemed to go right after him down the stretch, whether it was John Wall, Bradley Beal or even 38-year-old Andre Miller, who scored eight of his 10 points in the fourth quarter.

Thibodeau was asked if the defensive breakdowns were more related to bad positioning or poor communication.

“It was a compilation of all those things,’’ he said. ‘‘To me, if one guy is not doing their job, it’s going to make everyone look bad. We have to be tied together. We have to have the proper amount of intensity and concentration. And we have to finish our defense. That’s one thing that we could do a lot better.”

…

While there will be tinkering, it didn’t sound as though Thibodeau was going to change his rotation. That means Augustin and the other players on the court at the end of games will have to find a way to deal with the Wizards’ backcourt and to slow down forward Nene, who burned the Bulls for 24 points.

***

No. 5:Jefferson: ‘I’m suiting up’ for Game 2 — Bobcats center Al Jefferson can count on one hand the number of times he’s been in the playoffs. As the big man is in the midst of just his third career playoff appearance, there’s little doubt he’s going to let anything prevent him from playing. That statement apparently applies to his bout of plantar fascia in both feet that flared up early in Charlotte’s Game 1 loss to the Miami Heat. But as Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer reports, Jefferson is determined to play in Game 2 … and beyond:

Jefferson was in surprisingly good spirits Monday after missing practice, undergoing a magnetic resonance imaging and several hours of treatment. He said there’s no way the injury he suffered Sunday in Game 1 of this playoff series is a season-ender.

“I’m suiting up,” Jefferson said. “It’ll take more than that to make me sit down.”

…

The issue for Jefferson is not so much his availability, but rather his effectiveness. He will again miss practice Tuesday and his left foot is encased in a protective walking boot.

The pain he experienced in the first quarter Sunday, after he felt a “pop” in his left foot, was excruciating – he compared it to the sudden attack of appendicitis he suffered several years ago, resulting in emergency surgery.

Despite that, Bobcats medical staff told him and coach Steve Clifford that Jefferson is taking no special risk by playing. He was told not to anticipate needing surgery in the off-season; that this is about pain-management now and rest in the off-season.

…

The plantar fascia is a thick band of fibrous material that runs along the bottom of a foot, connecting the heel bone to the toes.

There doesn’t seem to be a significant risk in Jefferson playing with this injury, so long as he can handle the pain, according to Dallas-based sports orthopedist Dr. Richard Rhodes.

“If you can fight through, and they can manage the pain (with medication), you can go on it and then heal in the off-season,” said Rhodes, describing the plantar fascia as helping the foot hold its natural arch.

…

The issue going forward is how Jefferson can perform in the short-run. Clifford said the injury seemed to harm Jefferson’s performance more on offense than defense. In particular, Clifford noted, Jefferson struggled to pivot off his left foot, which is key to his low-post scoring moves.

…

Jefferson agrees with Clifford that he spent much of the second half pulling up for jump shots or floaters, rather than completing a move to the rim. He said that was more out of initial fear after the injury than the physical inability to recreate his moves.

“I stopped short. I was afraid to continue,” Jefferson described. “It was more in my head than anything, that I was afraid to do things I normally do.”

ICYMI OF THE NIGHT: Yes, the Grizzlies won Game 2 in OKC last night. But there’s no denying that Kevin Durant was doing all he could to get the win last night, as evidenced by this wild and-one 3-pointer he nailed late in regulation …

April 18, 2014 · 4:15 PM ET

By Steve Aschburner, NBA.com

NEW YORK – With a new NBA commissioner flexing his distinctly collaborative style, working without crises at a “peace time” Board of Governors meeting, the league’s leadership took no significant votes and made no major decisions this week during their two-day Manhattan conclave.

But they sure did a lot of brainstorming and spitballing.

Talk of tweaks carried the day when Adam Silver, not quite three months into the job that David Stern held for three decades, shared Friday with reporters some of the topics in play at this BOG. In committee reports and in general discussion of the full board, they ranged from the pros and cons of a proposed 20-and-under eligibility rule (two years of college, in other words) to new ways of seeding, re-seeding or otherwise modifying the playoffs bracket.

The owners talked about further transparency, both in officiating itself and in the process that oversees the league’s referees. They kicked around ideas great and small related to the draft and the lottery – the “wheel” concept that would have each team picking at each spot in the first round over a 30-year period, as well as a play-in tournament for the No. 1 pick – without pushing toward any conclusion.

Overall, as described by Silver, the tone seemed to be: Things are good. Anyone have any ideas on how we can make them better?

“The league is doing so well right now, I just want to be very deliberate and cautious any major changes,” Silver said, both directly and in various guise underlying a half dozen other comments. If Stern’s effectiveness as commissioner often boiled down to persuasion, arm-twisting and – when all that failed – swift, autocratic management, Silver publicly so far has come across as a facilitator and delegator, seeking out others’ expertise and respecting the work of the BOG’s committees on matters of competition, finance and other league business.

Oh, there were a few clear developments Friday. The NBA entered into a partnership with USA Basketball and the U.S. Department of Defense to support soldiers and their families “through basketball,” with an emphasis on transitioning the armed forces members back to civilian life.

Also, there was a change at the top: San Antonio owner Peter Holt stepped down as chairman of the Board of Governors after 18 months, because of personal commitments. Minnesota’s Glen Taylor, who held that post from 2008 to 2012, takes over again on an interim basis, with a vote for Holt’s successor to be held by the board’s October meeting.

No vote was taken on the Milwaukee Bucks’ pending sale for a whopping $550 million to New York hedge-fund billionaires Marc Lasry and Wesley Edens – the league’s vetting process is underway. But current Bucks owner Herb Kohl introduced the two prospective owners to the board Thursday. Silver said he knows Lasry personally – Lasry owns a small share of the Brooklyn Nets, from which he’d have to divest – and added: “I don’t anticipate there will be any issues, but we’re not there in the process yet.” The sale could be approved without a formal owners meeting, as quickly as in a month or so.

Silver is diligent about process, and why not? The league sets up committees to study its various issues and make recommendations, so there’s value in their findings. The new commissioner also has tapped into leaders from related fields as resources. This time, NCAA president Mark Emmert and Gen. Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke with the owners.

Dempsey’s presence pertained to the “Hoops for Troops” partnership, obviously. But Emmert was there to discuss the NBA’s age-limit for draft prospects and its impact on college basketball and the players.

Silver, at All-Star weekend and in interviews, has talked repeatedly about his preference for raising the eligibility age – he said Friday “a majority” of the owners share that view. He and the league, for practical purposes, have gotten out in front of the NBA players’ union on the topic. After all, it would have to be collectively bargained – written into the existing CBA as an addendum if an agreement were reached, Silver said – and much of the NBPA’s business is on hold while its search for a new executive director grinds on.

But Silver introduced a third party into the coming discussions. “What Dr. Emmert and I agree on is that the NCAA needs to have a seat at the table,” the commissioner said. “If we are going to be successful in raising the age from 19 to 20, part and parcel of those negotiations go to the treatment of those players on college campuses [and] closing the gap between what their scholarships cover and their other incidental expenses.”

Silver didn’t get into any specific incentives, financial or otherwise, that might affect the issue. But he didn’t rule anything out – kind of the theme of the afternoon. Blow through the conference divide to have 10 West playoff teams vs. six East? Open up the instant-replay process to give referees discretion to rule not just on an out-of-bounds possessions but also an unseen foul?

Silver wasn’t ruling anything out.

“This seems like a good time,” he said at one point in Friday’s news conference, “when you have a transition in leadership to take a fresh look at virtually everything.”

Here are some further details on the above:

The partnership supporting armed forces members will include exhibition games, clinic, speaking engagements and game tickets, though its primary focus will be the “thousands of service members returning from overseas duty.” Why the NBA? Dempsey, Silver said, ” told us was that basketball is the most popular sport among his troops, and it’s also a highly popular sport among the families of the troops.”

Silver had high praise for the league’s competition committee, which is studying playoff structure and other areas of the game with more than the hit-and-run approach of the past. It has moved “towards what I would call an NFL‑style format, where it’s a multi‑day meeting, focused attention from a cross‑section of coaches, general managers [and] owners,” Silver said. “We have a player representative there, as well, and these are the kind of issues where the last thing we wanted to do is make them based on one meeting, owners hearing arguments for the first time.”

While not tipping his hand on any tweaks that might blow across traditional conference lines, Silver did mention a factor cited in reverting The Finals this year to a 2-2-1-1-1 format. “You have a system that was designed before all teams traveled by charter,” he said, “and as travel becomes easier, it opens up more windows of opportunity for change.”

It is the competitiveness of NBA general managers that underlies the one-and-done scenarios and issues, Silver said. “It doesn’t surprise me,” he said. “If these great young players are available, our teams will draft them. Whether they’ll ultimately turn out to be wise draft picks is a whole separate issue.” Requiring two years after high school – in NCAA hoops, in the D League, in Europe, wherever – would get NBA scouts out of high school gyms, boost the college game, deliver to NBA teams more developed rookies and put players in a pro environment when they might be a little better equipped to thrive. But the NBPA still has to weigh in.

Silver wasn’t asked directly about “tanking” or, er, rebuilding teams whose seasons now are done. But he did take a question about playoff teams in the final days of the schedule manipulating their rotations in what appeared to be playoff-positioning. “I’d just begin by saying it’s the last area I think the league should be legislating, and that is minutes players play,” he responded. “I mean, we have some of the greatest coaches in the world in this league and highly sophisticated teams, and so it’s part of managing player time.”

Who’s to say that rest and recuperation aren’t the driving forces in the final week, Silver suggested. “We have a long playoffs,” he said. “It’s part of the drama over a seven‑game series. It’s the match‑ups, it’s the reactions. Again, it’s the pairings of particular players against each other. It’s sort of the chess playing among our coaches, and I think resting players becomes all part of that.”

Silver said that Milwaukee’s Kohl – who has owned the Bucks since 1985, has included in the sales agreement that the team remain in town, and has pledged that he and the new owners each will contribute $100 million to a new arena – was lauded by the board. “The owners were amazed at the personal contribution [former U.S. Senator] Kohl announced to the city of Milwaukee,” Silver said. “It’s unprecedented for an owner to make a $100 million contribution to his community.”

The round of applause Kohl received in the room reflected that, the commissioner said. Establishing a price of $550 million for what historically has been the NBA’s least valuable franchise might have had a little to do with the clapping, too.

April 17, 2014 · 2:42 AM ET

By Jon Hartzell, NBA.com

Herb Kohl’s pending sale of the Milwaukee Bucks to hedge-fund billionaires Marc Lasry and Wes Edens for approximately $550 million, plus a $100 million gift from Kohl and $100 million commitment from Lasry and Edens to build a new arena, firmly cements the Bucks’ future in Milwaukee.

“My priority has always been and will continue to be keeping the Bucks in Milwaukee,” said Kohl during an afternoon press conference on Wednesday. “This announcement reinforces that Milwaukee is and will continue to be the home of the Bucks. Wes and Marc agree, and they share my commitment to the long-term success of this franchise in Milwaukee.”

This isn’t the first time Kohl has stepped up to keep the Bucks in Milwaukee.

During the heyday of the franchise – when they won 50 or more games each season from 1980-87 – Bucks’ principle owner Jim Fitzgerald was forced to put the franchise up for sale in 1985 after a failed business venture (a premium TV service called SportsVue started with then Milwaukee Brewers owner Bud Selig). Fitzgerald quickly received offers from Minneapolis, Toronto, Miami and Santa Ana to buy the Bucks away from Milwaukee. Despite his preference to keep the team in Wisconsin, seemingly no local investors were willing to throw money at a franchise which was reportedly incapable of making a revenue in the incredibly small MECCA Arena which only sat 11,052 people.

“Herb was the only individual who pursued this diligently,” Fitzgerald said in 1985. “Milwaukee is very fortunate to have Herb Kohl.”

Kohl purchased the franchise for approximately $18 million (the highest price for an NBA franchise pre-expansion) on March 1, 1985. Even then, he knew the importance of the Bucks to Milwaukee.

“Had it not been for Herb Kohl, it would be inevitable that it would not be the Milwaukee Bucks today,” former NBA commissioner David Stern said during an interview in 1987. “He stepped in and did it not because it projected out to be such a great investment but because that was the price to keep the team in Milwaukee.”

The arena situation in 1985 was quickly settled when Lloyd and Jane Pettit privately financed the entire construction costs of the Bradley Center. It doesn’t seem likely the Bucks will be so fortunate this time around, but the $200 million commitment from Lasry, Edens and Kohl will surely help initiate the arena discussion.

The Bucks have struggled under Kohl. But his commitment to the franchise, City of Milwaukee and state of Wisconsin has not wavered. Which is why, after yesterday’s announcement, this quote from prominent Milwaukee real estate developer Marvin Fishman in 1985 still holds true:

“This purchase now by Herbie Kohl ensures that this team will never leave Milwaukee.”

April 16, 2014 · 12:52 PM ET

From NBA.com staff reports

The Milwaukee Bucks face an uncertain future — as detailed here by our own Jon Hartzell — as current owner Herb Kohl seeks a new owner who will help keep the team in town and secure a new arena to replace the dilapidated BMO Harris Bradley Center.

The Milwaukee Bucks will announce later Wednesday that longtime owner Herb Kohl has reached an agreement to sell the team to Wesley Edens and Mark Lasry for a purchase price of $550 million, according to sources familiar with the transaction.

Sources told ESPN.com that the deal, subject to league approval, will be confirmed in an afternoon news conference.

April 16, 2014 · 10:00 AM ET

By Jon Hartzell, NBA.com

MILWAUKEE — The Milwaukee Bucks need a new arena, and they need it soon. New NBA commissioner Adam Silver has said so. The Bucks’ owner has said it. Everyone across the league acknowledges the need to replace what has become maybe the NBA’s most dismal arena.

The 79-year-old Kohl has stated his willingness to sell, but he also has said he’s dedicated to finding an owner who will keep the team in Milwaukee. A new downtown arena is the quickest way to secure the franchise’s future in Milwaukee.

“In order to keep the Bucks, we have to have a facility,” Kohl said during Bucks media day in October. “And in order to get a facility, we have to keep the Bucks. So it’s like a two-fer: We’re either going to get both in the years ahead or we’re going to have neither.”

Kohl has stated he is willing to contribute a significant personal financial investment to replace the current BMO Harris Bradley Center. The “Fortress on Fourth” was a privately funded gift built in 1988 with funds donated by philanthropists Jane Bradley Pettit and her husband, Lloyd Pettit. In addition to housing the Bucks, it is home to the Marquette University men’s basketball team and the Milwaukee Admirals of the American Hockey League.

But it has gradually fallen into disrepair, with a leaking atrium and a refrigerant system that’s no longer permitted in the United States. The Bradley Center struggles to generate the revenue needed to make fixes due to a lack of suite space and no year-round, on-site restaurant.

Kohl might be willing to fund an arena by himself if he could afford it. But with a reported net worth around $264 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, Kohl may not have the desire or the means. Especially after he contributed $25 million to the Wisconsin Badgers’ arena in Madison, now named the Kohl Center, in 1998.

Some speculate that given an arena price tag like that, Kohl might be willing to make a big investment in a new building after the team is sold. Others suggest that the sale of the franchise will depend largely on a commitment from the new ownership group to make a major contribution to an arena. These two sources could get the Bucks close to the $500 million necessary to construct an arena (the Sacramento Kings’ new arena is projected to cost $448 million), though Kohl has said he believes funding should come from a combination of public and private funds.

It may be difficult to raise enough private funds. But one of the groups reportedly interested in the Bucks, New York-based hedge-fund billionaires Marc Lasry and Wes Edens, have an estimated combined net worth around $3 billion, according to Forbes. They reportedly were close to closing a sale on the Bucks less than a week ago for $550 million, but a “late flurry of offers” drove the price up and re-opened negotiations, according to Simmons. Grantland also reported that Kohl refused to sell to a Seattle ownership group led by Chris Hansen and former Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer (who is worth approximately $20.1 billion, according to Forbes).

The other names to emerge as possible investors are nowhere near as wealthy as Lasry and Edens. But they all have at least some connection to Milwaukee, or the Midwest, which would ease the fear that a new ownership group would attempt to relocate the team. The most likely of these local investors are Chicago-based businessman Richard Chaifetz, who donated $12 million to build an arena at his alma-mater (Saint Louis University), former Bucks player (and one of Wendy’s largest franchisees), Junior Bridgeman, Wisconsin-based consultant Jon Hammes and current Milwaukee Brewers owner Mark Attanasio, who previously stated he would be interested in investing in a new arena. It seems likely Kohl would remain involved with the team in some capacity if he decides to sell to a local ownership group, and he could even remain the majority owner.

While a local ownership group sounds like a smart way to keep the team in Milwaukee, most believe that to go that route with the potential investors whose names have surfaced, significant public funding for a new arena would be needed. And local governments do not seem too keen on that idea.

Tax-for-arena argument won’t help cause

Southeastern Wisconsin residents continue to have a sour taste in their mouth over the five-county, 0.1 percent sales tax enacted in 1996 to fund the development of the Brewers’ Miller Park, which opened in 2001. The tax initially was to expire in 2012. But it was delayed to 2014 and now 2020 as tax revenues in the region have declined.

Local apathy is a huge hurdle in getting public money for a new arena. The perception around town is that a new arena would be only for the Bucks, rather than for the community. And the Bucks, the third-winningest team in the NBA during the 25 years prior to Kohl, have not gained many fans during the Kohl era. They’ve advanced past the first round of the playoffs just once since 1989 and are in the midst of their worst season ever.

All public funding hope is not lost, however. The private contributions from Kohl, Attanasio and a new ownership group would at least lessen the burden placed on the public to fund the arena. So the tax would not need to be as large as it was for Miller Park, which received $290 million in public funds in 1996 (equivalent to roughly $437 million in 2014). There are also emerging ideas about a “cultural tax” which would not only fund a new arena, but also parks, museums and the Milwaukee County Zoo. The concept was successfully used in Oklahoma City to fund the construction of the Thunders’ Chesapeake Energy Arena.

New public funding ideas will continue to emerge (“Super TIF,” anyone?). Still, it seems clear most Milwaukeeans are not enthusiastic about helping rich owners fund a new arena.

Bucks on-court product has some hope

All of this hullaballoo comes at the end of a season in which the Bucks will finish with the worst record in the NBA, after an offseason which saw them add 11 new players and coach Larry Drew in hopes of making another exasperated run at the playoffs. The Bucks will have a top pick in this year’s NBA Draft, joining a young core of Larry Sanders, John Henson, Brandon Knight, Khris Middleton, Nate Wolters and 19-year-old Giannis Antetokounmpo. The future of the franchise and the arena may be cloudy, but the roster’s future is arguably bright.

Silver is pleased with Kohl’s efforts to keep the team in Milwaukee, where it has been since 1968. But Milwaukee will force the NBA’s hand if there is no plan in place for a new arena when the Bradley Center’s lease expires in 2017. Current signs point toward Kohl selling the team. But many thought current Charlotte Bobcats owner Michael Jordan was going to buy the franchise in 2003 before Kohl pulled out late in the negotiation.

It’s been a horrible season for the Bucks, one that mercifully ends tonight when they host playoff-bound Atlanta at the Bradley Center (8 ET, League Pass). After that, with the franchise on the selling block, an unsettled arena situation and a critical top four pick in the Draft, the Bucks will step uncertainly into what may be their most important offseason yet.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was at the Bradley Center as part of a promotion he’s doing for the Wisconsin Department of Tourism.

Now it’s Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, talking in more general terms about his interest in NBA ownership but doing so on the day he’s back in Milwaukee, too.

Abdul-Jabbar, the Bucks’ first and greatest superstar, acknowledged to the Milwaukee Business Journal on Monday that he hasn’t talked with Kohl about investing in the Bucks.

It also sounded as if his commitment — whenever, wherever and if ever — would have more to do with reputation and perhaps sweat equity than the deep pockets Bridgeman can bring to any deal. The NBA’s all-time leading scorer (38,387 points) and six-time champion talked with the Business Journal’sRich Kirchen more about his fit as a minority NBA owner than about securing the Bucks in the city he left after six seasons.

“Being involved in the business of basketball is something I wouldn’t shy away from,” Abdul-Jabbar said in an exclusive interview with the Milwaukee Business Journal. “But it would have to be a good situation for me. It would depend totally on what the situation was.”

So what kind of situation would meet the all-time NBA scoring leader’s goals? Financial upside would be necessary, he said.

“Something where I had some equity in the team, so that what I would get an opportunity to benefit from it,” he said.

And:

If Abdul-Jabbar does invest in an NBA team, he said he would want to play a role in setting a team’s direction.

“Oh yeah, I’d have to have some say,” he told me. “I wouldn’t have to have all of it.”

Abdul-Jabbar was in Milwaukee on Monday to promote his role in a new Wisconsin Department of Tourism ad campaign that teams him with “Airplane!” co-star Robert Hays and directors David Zucker, Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams. In the retro commercial, Abdul-Jabbar reprises his role as pilot “Roger Murdock,” with he and Hays’ character marveling at Wisconsin scenery from their cockpit view.

Part of the joke is Abdul-Jabbar’s mock second-guessing of his decision after six seasons to leave Milwaukee in 1975, when he pressured the Bucks into trading him to the Los Angeles Lakers. He won five more championship rings by teaming up with Pat Riley, Magic Johnson and the rest of the “Showtime” Lakers, but the Bucks haven’t returned to The Finals since winning the title in 1970-71 with a team featuring NBA legend Oscar Robertson and a young Abdul-Jabbar.

So it rang a little hollow when the Hall of Fame center spoke with Kirchen about the challenge faced by Kohl to build and maintain a winner in a small market.

“I think he’s trying to run it the right way,” Abdul-Jabbar said [of Kohl]. “They just haven’t been able to get the talented people they need to be more successful. I don’t know where the fault there lies. But it’s all about getting, identifying and signing up the talented players.

Trouble is, Milwaukee can no more entice big-name free agents now than it could hold onto its sky-hooking superstar 40 years ago.

March 3, 2014 · 9:17 PM ET

Junior Bridgeman played in the NBA from 1975 to 1987.

As the leader of Washington High’s basketball team 43 years ago in East Chicago, Ind., Ulysses Lee (Junior) Bridgeman helped the Senators to a perfect 29-0 record and the Indiana state championship. His teammates included Pete Trgovich, who would win two NCAA titles at UCLA; Tim Stoddard, who went on to North Carolina State and an MLB pitching career, and Bridgeman’s brother Sam.

Fifteen years later, Washington High closed its doors for the last time. Due to declining enrollments and aging buildings there and at East Chicago’s other school, Roosevelt, the two were merged in 1986 on a new campus with a new name: Central.

The Cardinals were born. The Senators and the Roughriders were dead.

“Shot in the heart,” is how Bridgeman felt about it. “You think you’re going to take your kids there and your grandkids to see your picture, and they tear down the high school. So there’s nothing left.”

Bridgeman, a valuable swingman who spent most of his 12 NBA seasons with the Milwaukee Bucks (and still holds the franchise record for games played, 711), knows he could face the same sort of erasure to his professional basketball career if the Bucks ultimately get sold to outside interests and are relocated out of Milwaukee.

“It would almost be the same thing for me personally – it would be devastating,” he said. “Because you’re tied to the history. I’m tied to the history of the game in Milwaukee.”

Bridgeman was at the BMO Harris Bradley Center Saturday in part to make sure that does not happen. He was honored as a popular Bucks alumnus with his own bobblehead night, speaking briefly and waving to the fans during a break in the Bucks’ game against Brooklyn. The banner featuring Bridgeman’s retired No. 2 jersey hung overhead.

He was there as a familiar face and voice, too, to support the Bucks’ place in the hearts and wallets of southeastern Wisconsin sports fans. And most intriguingly, Bridgeman was in the house Saturday as a possible Bucks investor who could share some of the fiscal responsibility and provide continuity for former U.S. Senator Herb Kohl, the team’s 79-year-old principal owner.

Bridgeman, after all, is one of the NBA’s proudest, post-playing days success story. Learning and investing in the fast-food industry before his career ended in 1987, the former Louisville star and No. 8 pick in the 1975 Draft has built a business empire of more than 160 Wendy’s outlets, an estimated 100 Chili’s restaurants and several Fazoli’s locations. In 2012, Forbes estimated Bridgeman’s net worth to be more than $200 million, ranking him No. 18 among the nation’s most wealthy African-Americans.

Kohl announced earlier this season that he was seeking a majority or minority partner to keep the Bucks in Milwaukee and help realize his ambition of a new arena, publicly and privately financed to replace the Bradley Center. Bridgeman already is part of a group that bought into the Sacramento Kings last May to achieve the same results – he is friendly with Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson, a former all-NBA point guard.

That involvement required Bridgeman to disclose little Saturday about his discussions with Kohl – NBA bylaws would require him to divest himself of the Kings’ stake if he were to buy into the Bucks – but it was evident the possibilities appeal both to Bridgeman’s head and his heart.

“You always hope you make good business decisions, but obviously there’s a lot of emotion in this one,” Bridgeman said. “You just hope that doesn’t lead you to do things that aren’t prudent. I still think this is a very good situation. Over the next few years, some things have to happen but I think it’ll prove itself out.”

At 11-47, the Bucks rank last in the NBA standings, not a horrible thing given the depth and quality of talent in this year’s draft but still no fun through the 82-game regular season. At $405 million, they rank last on Forbes’ 2014 list of franchise valuations. And with an average attendance of 13,442, they rank last in that category too. Some of that is due to their arena, which opened in 1988 and lacks amenities common in newer NBA venues. Some of that is due to the Bucks’ traditions.

Milwaukee got spoiled early, landing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in a lucky draft coin-flip after just one expansion season, acquiring legend Oscar Robertson and winning its only NBA championship in 1971, the end of Year 3. Bridgeman arrived three weeks after he was drafted, packaged by the Lakers in the mega-deal that brought Abdul-Jabbar to L.A.

The Bucks went from a “Green and Growing” slogan meant to instill optimism (they were 30-52 in 1976-77) to a top Eastern Conference contender through much of the 1980s. With a new coach, Don Nelson, and eventually players such as Sidney Moncrief, Marques Johnson and Bob Lanier, only some dominant Boston and Philadelphia teams stood between them and another trip to the Finals. Later, Jack Sikma, Terry Cummings, Ricky Pierce and others butted heads with Detroit and Chicago.

More recently, the Bucks made six playoff appearances in eight seasons with players such as Ray Allen, Glenn Robinson, Sam Cassell and Michael Redd. No more rings, but fans in Milwaukee got accustomed to competitive games and victory totals in the 30s, not the 20s or the teens. That’s the pledge Kohl had for his customers again in October, which makes this season’s unofficial “tanking” so unappealing at the turnstiles.

But the empty seats don’t scare Bridgeman, any more than Milwaukee’s small market size or lack of sizzle as a free agent destination.

“Nothing is permanent,” he said. “You might not like the record where it’s at. But in my mind … it’s only a matter of time before you get that upward movement.”

As a businessman, Bridgeman – the president of the NBA players association when the average player salary reached $600,000 – termed the league’s growth phenomenal (average salary now: $5.7 million). He likes what he sees in the current collective-bargaining agreement, the revenue-sharing mechanism in place and the potential for the new TV contract in 2016, in their benefit to teams of modest market size.

As a possible owner, he focuses too on standards, practices and habits that have helped him employ an estimated 11,000 workers.

“It’s just like playing,” Bridgeman said. “You have to find what’s within you to make you the best player on the floor. It’s the same way in the business world. For me, it was mopping floors, being there at close, handing bags out the window. A lot of things where people’d say, ‘Why are you doing that? You shouldn’t be doing it.’

“Well, it was the same thing playing basketball when you were out running to get in shape at 5 in the morning or shooting an extra 1,000 shots. It’s really funny how the same principles in life apply to so many different things.”

Buying into the Bucks might be the next shot Bridgeman takes.

Better that than another one to the heart, seeing a part of his history close and move away.

February 25, 2014 · 1:38 PM ET

Milwaukee’s Ersan Ilyasova (Joe Murphy/NBAE)

MILWAUKEE – Some players are the socks. Ersan Ilyasova is the feet. But the end result is the same: Change, constantly.

If you’re Nate Robinson, Mike James, Chucky Brown, Joe Smith and dozens of others who leave forwarding addresses as often as most of us leave gratuities, you know the drill: Signed here, traded there, employed, waived, paid, packaged and dumped time and again back into the hamper.

If you’re Ilyasova, you don’t go anywhere, yet everything around you changes. Argyle, tube, crew, silk, solid, patterned, support – the Milwaukee Bucks’ 6-foot-10 forward from Eskisehir, Turkey, has gone through a veritable sock drawer in his NBA career.

Consider: Of the 60 players taken in the 2005 NBA Draft, Ilyasova (No. 36 in the second round) is the only one still with his original team. All the big names that night – former Buck Andrew Bogut, Deron Williams, Chris Paul, Raymond Felton and so on – have moved at least once, as have the sleepers (David Lee, Monta Ellis, Marcin Gortat). Indiana’s Danny Granger was the last of the “originals,” besides Ilyasova, until he got dealt to Philadelphia on Thursday at the league’s trade deadline. Many have dropped off the NBA map entirely.

And because there is no one from the 2004 Draft still with the team that selected him and, from 2006, only Portland’s Joel Freeland remains with the team – he’s an asterisk case who came over from Great Britain prior to last season – Ilyasova’s specialness spans three drafts and 179 others whose names got read by David Stern or former second-round maestro Russ Granik.

Had Ilyasova, 18 when he was picked, played for the Bucks immediately (he spent 2005-06 in the D League with Tulsa), he would have been a teammate of Ervin Johnson and Toni Kukoc, who were 20 and 19 years older than him that season. He stayed overseas for a year, dipped his toe into the NBA in 2006-07 at 19, then went back to play in Spain for two years.

By the time Ilyasova returned for 2009-10, only four players remained from his first NBA roster (Charlie Bell, Dan Gadzuric, Michael Redd and Bogut). After Bogut was traded to Golden State during the 2011-12 season, all four of them were gone, too.

Now it’s two years later, the Bucks are on their fifth head coach since Ilyasova was drafted – he missed the Larry Krystkowiak era entirely – and he’s one of just four players left from last year’s roster. He has been supplanted as the team’s resident Euro phenom by 19-year-old “Greek freak” Giannis Antetokounmpo, the youngest player in the NBA.

He has had 67 Milwaukee teammates, by the team’s count, from the start of 2006-07 till now.

The irony in all this is that Ilyasova, that rare individual who has been spared the endless uncertainty of role players and journeymen everywhere, actually might be better off had he been forced to relocate a time or two.

Staying with the Bucks has been easy on the wardrobe and his friends’ contacts lists. He met his wife Julia in Milwaukee. And his early Bird rights with the Bucks made him eligible for the five-year, $40 million contract he signed in July 2012.

But he has sniffed the air of a winning season just once, in 2009-10, and is a cumulative 72 games under .500 while general manager Larry Harris first and John Hammond second have re-painted, laid new carpeting and moved the furniture around him.

Worse, Ilyasova has regressed as a player. Mostly starting yet struggling – first from an ankle injury in camp, then in coach Larry Drew’s new system – he is putting up the shakiest numbers of his career: 10.5 points and 6.0 rebounds a game, 38.5 percent shooting, 29.6 percent on 3-pointers. Per 36 minutes, he’s about where he was as a nervous teenager. Better paid but more frustrated.

Ilyasova, who watched as NBA vets Luke Ridnour and Gary Neal were freed at the deadline from the NBA’s losingest team (via their trade to Charlotte), talked recently with Gery Woelfelof the Racine Journal Times about his Groundhog Day permanence in Milwaukee:

Ilyasova downplayed talk about him wanting out of Milwaukee and declined to comment on whether he or his agent, Andy Miller, had requested a trade.

Ilyasova made it clear, though, the Bucks’ revolving door policy with players has irritated him.

“The thing I’m upset about is each year, each season, we go through the same thing,” Ilyasova said. “Last year, we make the playoffs and now we start all over again. That’s really frustrating.

“Hopefully, we’ll find right pieces for the team. Hopefully, we’ll turn it around.”

Then the deadline passed, Ramon Sessions and Jeff Adrien came aboard as possible (though minor) pieces and Ilyasova stayed put. Ilyasova reportedly is a favorite of owner Herb Kohl, who remains enticed by Ilyasova’s potential.

Ilyasova is a complementary player who constantly has had to adapt to another new crew and new vision. The things he does best – 13.0 points a game, 5.6 rebounds, 45.5 percent 3FG the year before he got his contract – have slipped.

Still, he is the last man standing in the same spot from that June night nine years ago. Too often, though, you’d have a hard time proving it by his impact. He and the Bucks are due for a change.

September 30, 2013 · 8:58 PM ET

Larry Drew (lefts) looks to turn motley crew into a surprise team in the East.

ST. FRANCIS, Wis. – Milwaukee Bucks owner Herb Kohl hesitated, not entirely comfortable with the terminology. It was the kind of talk that might get frowned upon at NBA headquarters in Manhattan, after all. But it also was talk that’s been rampant since before the June draft, as various teams appeared to position themselves for something other than championship runs in 2013-14.

Finally, Kohl just went with it.

“To use the word ‘tank’ …,” the former U.S. Senator said, pausing again as he addressed reporters at his team’s Media Day Monday afternoon. “I’ve owned the team for 20-some years and never once did I go into a year saying, ‘Let’s not try and be a good team.’ I’ve always felt that way. So this year’s no different.”

This is Milwaukee, where Kohl is sensitive to his fan base and his fan base would be sensitive to any hint that his team consciously might not have quality basketball as its top priority. The Bucks made the playoffs last spring — admittedly, as the East’s No. 8 seed with a 38-44 record and first-round fodder for Miami — and there still were many nights when upper bowl at the BMO Harris Bradley Center was nearly empty. Milwaukee ranked 25th in average home attendance (15,935).

By refusing to “tank,” the Bucks generally have found themselves stuck somewhere in between being really good or really bad. They have drafted higher than No. 8 just twice in the past 17 years — Andrew Bogut (No. 1 overall, 2005) and Yi Jianlian (No. 6, 2007). During that same period, they have finished first in the Central Division once and advanced out of the first round once in eight playoff appearances.

What people wonder and talk about in Boston, Philadelphia and perhaps a few other markets this season regarding those teams’, er, managed levels of competitiveness, the Bucks want no part of. That’s not to say that their dramatically overhauled roster — with only four players back from last season — will win enough to avoid the appearance of at least semi-tanking. But it isn’t in the mission statement.

“There are some teams that buy into one kind of philosophy, and I’m not commenting on what other teams do,” Kohl said. “But I don’t believe in not competing. And doing everything you can to be as competitive as you can, and then looking for the breaks along the way that will give you a chance maybe to elevate to a high standard.”

Glancing over at the Bucks’ newly hired assistant general manager who will work with GM John Hammond this season, Kohl continued: “I know David Morway is standing there, he came from Indiana, Indiana’s a really good team this year. Indiana never tanked. Is that right, David?”

Morway, the new guy, wisely and quickly nodded in the affirmative.

“They’ve done it adding pieces here and there,” the owner said, “getting some breaks and so on. All of a sudden, here they are contending for the Eastern Conference championship. And they did it without using that word. And so we want to do it that way.”

Well, not exactly. There may not be a Paul George or Roy Hibbert in the Bucks bunch at the moment; Milwaukee doesn’t have an obvious All-Star selection on its roster.

What it has is some familiar relocated names (O.J. Mayo, Caron Butler, Gary Neal), some familiar faces (returning Bucks Carlos Delfino, Zaza Pachulia, Luke Ridnour) and a few young players still seeking footholds (Brandon Knight, Khris Middleton). The four holdovers all crowd into power forward/center spots– Larry Sanders, John Henson, Ersan Ilyasova, Ekpe Udoh.

Kohl, Hammond and new coach coach Larry Drew stressed character and chemistry repeatedly Monday, not-so-subtle references to some of the divisive personal agendas in Milwaukee’s locker room last season (Brandon Jennings, Monte Ellis and Samuel Dalembert, among others). Starting Tuesday, Drew’s job in his shift from Atlanta is to assemble the parts into something entertaining and plucky enough to satisfy Milwaukeeans and the Senator.

“It’s really tough when you bring in this amount of new players,” Drew said. “We’re going to force-feed ’em. We have no choice. We don’t have a lot of time to get everything in, particularly before we play our first exhibition game.

“Obviously it’s going to come down to seeing how well these guys mesh together, gel together, play together. We’ll be looking at different combinations. We’ll be throwing guys in different positions. I have to see what I have.”

The one piece that does seem straight from a full rebuild is 18-year-old Greek forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Bucks’ first-round pick in June. He is a gangly 6-foot-9, all wingspan, smile and potential who might be hitting his stride about the time this roster has turned over another time or two.

For Hammond, constrained by the market pressures as Kohl practices them, the opportunity to go with a project — for a franchise that isn’t an elite free-agent destination – was a rare thrill. The GM spoke about feeling “giddy” at times while watching Antetokounmpo work at Tim Grgurich‘s summer camp and hoping that fans at least see glimmers of the kid’s talent in occasional games this season.

But that learning curve won’t crowd ahead of the W-L standings, a goal of another playoff berth or, frankly, Kohl’s dream of a new arena to replace the Bradley Center. The building opened in 1988 and apparently lacks many of the features and amenities that boost the financial statements of teams in more modern facilities.

An apathetic fan base or a lot of games with empty upper bowls is no way to leverage the public subsidies that will be needed on top of Kohl’s “significant contribution.”

“Naturally you want to be as good as you can be – that helps – in moving towards an arena,” Kohl said Monday. “But I would not want to put that burden on our basketball operations.

“We’re gonna get a facility. I’m confident we’re going to get a facility because it’s an important thing, not only for basketball but for our community. And in order to keep the Bucks, we have to have a facility. And in order to get a facility, we have to keep the Bucks. So it’s like a two-fer: We’re either going to get both in the years ahead or we’re going to have neither.”

Did someone say leverage? As in, say, Seattle?

Put that way, being stuck in the middle competitively is a lot more appealing in Milwaukee than being on the outside looking in.